User blog:MomoQca/Xenoblade Chronicles X: Unidentified Material
''Note: All images used in this blog post originate from the art book known as Xenoblade X: The Secret File - Art of Mira. Please be aware that English is not my native language, so please be kind and understanding--I am willing to be corrected however! The purpose of this blog post is to hopefully foster some interesting dialogue among the fanbase. Also, please keep in mind that the majority of this post is mostly speculation and will contain heavy spoilers from Xenoblade Chronicles X. I will attempt to update daily on a single page along with my own speculation. I may even accept others' as well! :) Page 262: Main protagonist At some point during the initial planning stage of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Monolith Soft intended to have a fixed main protagonist. For those unaware, Hero (from this point forward, I'll use "Hero" to refer to the scrapped main character) was changed to a customizable avatar to accommodate the online nature of the game. Per Tetsuya Takahashi's words in the Iwata Asks interview, they changed Hero to an avatar in the middle of development. This resulted in the team having to throw out many ideas--most likely story-related as can be seen in the "Unidentified Material" section of the book. As seen above and to the right, Hero bears a striking resemblance to Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles. This character seemingly made a brief appearance towards the end of the trailer, which was formally announced the infamous January 2013 Nintendo Direct. From that point forward, he never appeared again...until the art book showed up, of course. It is not known whether Monolith Soft intends to use Hero for the hypothetical sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles X. The fact that he is labeled as "confidential" leads me to believe that we will see him in their upcoming game. It may or may not be the case--no one truly knows except for the development team. At the bottom right of the page features a trio of characters. Interestingly, they are clustered together on the same page as Hero--it's not clear whether they were party members, major supporting characters, villains, or even unimportant NPCs. One character looks like a human while the other two each belong to different xeno species. The human at the top of the cluster does not appear to be similar to Hero on the same page. Unlike Hero, he sports a beard and a slightly shorter hairstyle. However, could he be an earlier prototype? Or someone with a connection to the protagonist? *shrugs* To the bottom right is a seemingly feminine xeno character sporting elf-like ears. She vaguely reminds me of Ryyz with her bald head and ears. I realize this is quite reaching, but even Elma's true form gives me a similar vibe--especially with her stern facial expression. Lastly, the character on the bottom left appears to be the least connected to the human race. Is he a villain? Or just a friendly ally? I'm thinking the former due to the nearby sketch of what appears to be his mouth. Page 263: Scrapped characters At first glance, this page doesn't seem to be too exciting--it features an old man with a beard and a young woman. The nameless old man doesn't seem to share any obvious connections to any of the characters from the finished game or the art book. It should be noted that some fans have speculated that he is the father of Hero from the previous page. He certainly looks like a father-figure similar to Dunban. Not much else can be said about this character, unfortunately. Strangely, the heroine on the bottom of the page has a name: Reina Sakuraba. The art book speculates that she was intended to be the heroine--it's not clear if she was meant to be the female version of Hero or a protagonist starring alongside him. Her concept sketch is slightly reminiscent of Fiora. Interestingly, her last name makes an appearance in the final game in the form of Sakuraba Industries. It's highly likely that she is related to the group's CEO named Dan Sakuraba. Considering her youthful appearance, she could potentially be the CEO's daughter. Page 264: The Black Knight Oh boy...this character, dubbed the Black Knight, has been one of the subjects of the highly controversial post-credits scene. Here is a quick recap of the scene: the Black Knight walks towards an unconcsious Lao lying on the beach. Lao is quickly awoken (apparently in his human form? I don't see it.) as soon as the mysterious figure is standing right beside him. The main story is concluded once the screen turns dark along with the following message: This story never truly ends... Whatever the heck that means... The message can be interpreted into two different ways. One, we'll see a continuation to this story...or two, the ending is meant to be left open for interpretation. Okay, getting back to the actual topic on hand. Luckily, the art book is generous enough to give us a more detailed art work of the Black Knight. True to his name, he sports a black metal armor and glowing blue parts which covers every square inch of his body. He also has reddish sword-like weapon (a katana, I assume?) and a black cape. It's almost impossible to discern whether he's actually a human or a xeno. Why almost? Well, take a look at what appears to be his left eye. You can see two distinct colors: yellow and red...hmm...definitely not a human at all. I assume the yellow makes up the eye and the red represents his skin. The jaw section doesn't appear to be human-like as well. The yellow eye is also visible in the one of the sketches to the right. However, it appears to be a visor instead of his actual eye. At the top of the image, we can see the Black Knight unmasking himself--unfortunately, there is not enough details to see his face. The right-most sketch appears to be the back of his head. Here we can see what appears to be tentacles or cords attached to the rear end of the helmet. There isn't much to observe in the second set of sketches. It's clearly a different design from the other three sketches. Unlike the first set and the colored drawing, he has a blue visor over his eyes. In the lower left sketch, it appears the character can adjust the helmet as determined by the arrows. Perhaps the most interesting thing that can be gleaned from the next set of sketches is the logo of a bird-like creature on the side of his helmet. As far as I am aware, this logo does not appear in Xenoblade Chronicles X. And finally, the small sketch at the bottom appears to be a mask--this probably has the most human-like appearance out of all the sketches. Oh! Remember the trio of characters from page 262? This is probably way out there, but the lower left character looks like he could be the Black Knight. The shape of his head seems to match the shape of the helmet. Also, his mouth seems to fit the odd jaw portion of the helmet in the colored sketch. Just an observation I wanted to share. Page 265: More scrapped characters The woman to the right is named Neilnail. There isn't much to discuss on her design, although there is some background information surrounding her race. It is stated that she is a Qlurian, the same as Celica. The Qlurian is said to be a technologically advanced race of beings, likely far more advanced than the Ma-non and others. According to Luxaar in Chapter 12, they, or rather, only those in the Qlu system have access to Trion technology. The only known use of Trion technology in the game is the Trion barrier, a protective layer of shield that completely envelopes the Lifehold. According to Luxaar's servant, it was customized to protect the structure. Wait a second...how did the humans obtain such high-level technology? The only logical answer is Elma--she offered many alien technologies to mankind, such as mimeosomes, light-speed travel, and Skells. However, if Luxaar's statement is to be believed, that means Elma is a Qlurian or comes from the Qlu System. Personally, I'm not convinced that she is a Qlurian herself. She doesn't appear to share any similar traits to Celica and Neilnail other than their elf-like ears. But even their ears aren't similar--Elma's ears appear to be part of her skin while Celica's and Neilnail's appear to be covered in feathers. A third possibility is that Luxaar was gravely mistaken--there is a chance that Elma somehow got access to the technology. So many evidence suggests that the Qlurians were going to have a major role in the main story, but unfortunately Celica and Rock had their roles significantly reduced and Neilnail received the ax. Maybe we'll see her for real someday. To finish off Neilnail, her name makes an appearance in Neilnail Albus, Neilnail Furvus, and Crude Neilnail Mask in Twin Dolls of Mystery. Let's shift the focus to Emily Chausson, the daughter of Maurice. Like Neilnail, there isn't much to comment on her design. However, I did discover that Maurice's son was referenced in the game during Spy Games. Isn't it a bit odd that they never referenced Emily even though she already has her own artwork? Meh. It's difficult to think how she'd fit into the overall story considering Maurice's role in the game. Her design leads me to believe she was intended to be an NPC with no effect on the main story. Category:Blog posts